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No bonfire of red tape after #Brexit, says EFRA committee chair

He called on the farming industry to ‘get ideas out there’ before the discussion becomes dominated by big environmental organisations.

“When EU legislation is repatriated, we will need to try to get Government to review it so we can change it. We need to make sure they start unpicking it.

“I fear unless we get out there and shout about it, we will not get much done. The truth is Government is slow at unraveling things, so we have to be proactive."

Mr Parish went on to say there will be changes to subsidy levels after 2020 and farmers needed to start justifying their support payments.

He said people who farm the land must receive support payments, ‘not the Duke of Westminster’, and he would like to reward farmers for environmental goods and food production.

“Things will be different after 2020, but we need something to support food production. This could take the form of payments to support competitiveness, such as for new buildings or slurry stores. We could also go down the route of grassland payments,” he said.

Mr Parish was confident Defra and the Department for International Trade had enough resources and expertise to carry out Brexit talks, but he said examining Government’s policies on trade and labour would be one of the first things the EFRA select committee did, in tandem with other departmental committees.

“One of the jobs of the committee is to scrutinise Government, we cannot just trust everything they say.

“We are getting all the right noises out of Ministers on farming. We are hearing a lot about exports, but we need to know if UK Trade and Investment is actually capable of putting in place the support necessary to boost them.

“I am mindful the country’s economy is dependent on the City of London, so we have got to get a deal which works for them, but we must make sure we do not sacrifice the needs of farmers in the process,” he added.